Areas of Amygdala and Frontal Cortex in Outcome Learning

描述(由申请人提供)：拟议研究的目标是评估杏仁基底外侧核(BLA)和眶前叶皮质(OFC)在了解奖赏价值变化方面的作用。我将使用两种行为范式来解决这个问题。结果贬值涉及降低奖励价值，因为它的消费与胃病相关，延迟奖励折扣通过延迟交付来降低奖励价值。比较BLA或OFC损伤在这些任务中的影响将提供关于它们支持的奖励学习类型的信息。这是相关的，因为人类吸毒者除了OFC和BLA的代谢功能障碍外，还表现出决策障碍和冲动选择。了解这些大脑区域是如何参与学习奖赏的，将提供有关吸毒者被破坏的过程的信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the proposed research is to assess the role of the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in learning about changes in reward value. I will use two behavioral paradigms to address this issue. Outcome devaluation involves reducing reward value pairing its consumption with gastric illness, and delayed reward discounting reduces reward value by delaying its delivery. Comparing the effects of BLA or OFC lesions in these tasks will provide information about the types of reward learning that they support. This is relevant because human drug abusers exhibit decision-making impairments and impulsive choice, in addition to metabolic dysfunction of the OFC and BLA. Understanding how these brain regions are involved in learning about rewards will provide information about the processes disrupted in drug abusers.